404 THE CLASS STRUGGLE 405 The Chief Task of Our Day By LENIN Poor thou art, rich thou art, Strong thou art and weak thou art, Oh Mother Russia. of one over the other. Awakened India will not be dominated by the English, awakened China will not be satisfied with her present status, because no race that has seen the light will submit to domination by another.
This harmony of races and nations, and with it the peace of the Pacific must be founded on the international solidarity of the working class. The workers must understand each other, must be given the facts correctly, and must learn to see that the divergent and diverging interests are not their interests.
They must not be split up by considerations of color, odor, instinct or anything else, but must be guided by their economic unity. The armed peace of the Pacific must be converted into a lasting peace based on the harmony of interests, on the international solidarity of the workers. And a lasting peace must be a proletarian peace. Only the solidarity of the working class of the world can avoid future wars, not only in the Pacific, but also in the Atlantic and everywhere else.
The history of mankind is at present passing through one of its greatest and most difficult crisis, a crisis with a tremendouswithout exaggeration it may be said with a world wide liberating significance. From war to peace, from war between beasts of prey, who have sent to the slaughter millions of those toiling and exploited, with the object of securing a redivision among the strongest of the robbers, of the spoils already acquired to a war of the oppressed against the oppressors for freedom from capitalist oppression; from the abyss of suffering, pain and hunger to the shining communistic society of the future, to general wellbeing and permanent peace. it is no wonder, at the most acute points of such a tremendous transformation, when round about the old is going to pieces with frightful noise and crash, while in indescribable pains the new is being born, that some men heads should be turned, that others should be seized by despair, and that others should seek relief from actuality, which is at times too bitter, in the shade of fair, enchanting phrases.
Yet it was necessary to feel vividly what was occurring, to live through, in the most excruciating and painful manner, this sharpest of all the sharp turns of history, lifting us out of imperialism into the communistic revolution. In a few days we destroyed one of the oldest, most powerful, most savage and barbarous monarchies. In a few months we passed through a series of agreements with the bourgeoisie, of living down of petit bourgeois illusions, for which other countries have required decades.
In a few weeks, after having overthrown the bourgeoisie, we defeated its open opposition in a civil war. In a victorious, triumphal progress of bolshevism we have passed from one end of our.